Background
John Halsey was born on March1, 1670, in Boston, New England, United States; he was the son of James and Dinah Halsey.
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John Halsey
Edit ProfileCareer
John Halsey went to sea while a youth and after a time was in command of small vessels trading with the southern colonies and the West Indies. In 1693 he was master of the sloop Adventure plying between Boston and Virginia. He later secured a privateer’s commission to prey on French shipping off the Newfoundland banks, and in 1703 it is recorded that he brought into Barbados three barks valued at £1, 800, upon which he refused to pay the Lord Admiral’s tenths.
In the summer of 1703 Colonel Nicholas Paige, John Colman, Benjamin Gallop, and other leading citizens and merchants of Boston built and equipped as a privateer the Charles, a brigantine of some eighty tons burden. In August 1703, while riding at anchor, the ship was seized by the notorious John Quelch and employed in a long piratical cruise which ended in Boston the next June when Quelch and five of his men were hanged. The owners recovered the Charles and secured Halsey to command it. Unable to secure a commission in Massachusetts, he went to Rhode Island, and there Governor Cranston, on November 7, 1704, commissioned him “to fight and destroy any privateers or others, subjects and vassalls of France and Spaine, for 12 months if the War continue so long. ”
Halsey in June 1705 brought into Rhode Island a Spanish prize valued at £4, 000 and precipitated a long quarrel between Governor Dudley of Massachusetts and Governor Cranston. Dudley maintained that Cranston had no authority to commission privateers; Cranston that he had such a right and was determined to exercise it. Although the Rhode Island Assembly under the influence of Colman had passed a resolution on June 19 supporting its governor, four days later the owners humbly petitioned Dudley to have the prize and a new commission. On June 27 Judge Nathaniel Byfield of the admiralty court adjudged the vessel a prize.
Once again on the high seas, and lured by tales of pirate wealth, Halsey abandoned honest privateering, became a pirate, and sailed for Madagascar. Doubling the Cape of Good Hope, he shaped his course for the Red Sea where he encountered a Dutchman of sixty guns from Mocha. Since he had determined to take only Moorish ships, he was overpowered and confined by his crew, who attacked the Dutch ship. The crew, “perceiving they had catched a Tartar, ” released him in time to be saved by his courage and seamanship. After a few profitless captures and a narrow escape from the Moorish fleet, they came upon a fleet of four English ships and drove off the convoy. They secured £10, 000 from the Rising Eagle and £40, 000 in money from the Essex.
Having discharged the Essex, they sailed to Madagascar to divide the booty. Some of the English merchants from the Essex later returned in the Greyhound from India with necessaries to barter with the pirates. They were dismayed to discover that a Scotch ship, the Neptune, was also trading with Halsey and his men. A storm having destroyed the pirate fleet, the English merchants persuaded them to seize the Neptune. The pirates first took the Neptune and then robbed the merchants of the Greyhound a second time and ordered them to sea. While the Scotch ship was being fitted by the pirates Halsey died of a tropical fever and was buried with pomp and solemnity. The prayers of the Church of England were read and colors were flying and salutes fired as he was buried in Madagascar in a grave made in a garden of watermelons and protected by palisades from the wild hogs.
Achievements
Personality
"He was brave in his Person, courteous to all his Prisoners, lived beloved, and died regretted by his own People. "
Connections
On Dec 10, 1700 John married Jane Taly. To John and Jane Halsey were born three children: Jane Halsey, Mary Halsey, and John Halsey.
